The Cast Of Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ Will Be Replaced Every 2 Seasons
If you’re enjoying watching Peter Morgan’s The Crown on Netflix, don’t get too attached to Claire Foy and Matt Smith’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. Once filming on season 2 has ended, it’s all change.
As we’ve reported before, Netflix picked up the royal drama for 60 episodes over 6 seasons, which will follow 6 decades in the life of Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street. Obviously that means the cast have got to age rather dramatically over those 6 seasons, which leaves the production with two options. Either subject the lead cast to a huge amount of prosthetics every couple of season, or replace the entire cast for people in a more appropriate age range. The Crown has chosen to go with the latter.
This make rather a lot of sense. The Crown is already thought to be Netflix’s most expensive series to date, and to add a massively increased make-up budget on top of that, seems to bring a lot additional expense and unnecessary hassle. It also makes sense that you might want more appropriate actors to take on the roles as the characters move into middle and older age.
It’s not uncommon for actors to reprise their roles in Peter Morgan dramas, such as Michael Sheen, who has portrayed Tony Blair a number of times for the writer, and it really wouldn’t surprise me if he reprises it when they reach that point in history. If the tradition continues with other actors, that also opens the door to the interesting possibility of seeing Helen Mirren return to the role of the older Queen Elizabeth, and James Cromwell as Prince Philip, which they played so brilliantly in Peter Morgan’s The Queen.
If you’ve not caught The Crown yet, the whole of Season 1 is now available on Netflix.
